Welcome to a Well-Seasoned Life. Life is too short to waste any time eating bland food. I'm living a meaningful life while cooking up Southern comfort food, both seasoned with a sense of humor. ~Kim McCallie

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauce

I've decided that we've been eating out way too much lately. So, I told the kids that we would be eating at home this week. Of course, there was major moaning and groaning and utter disappointment. How would we get by without Mexican Monday? What would we eat? Would we starve?﻿ I had to come up with a couple of meals that the kids would eat. My younger son and I love these chicken fingers.

Homemade chicken fingers are so easy and inexpensive to make. I can take three boneless chicken breasts and turn them into a whole platter of fingers that will feed all four of us for less than $4.00. This week, boneless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.79/lb. at Kroger. I've stocked up and will be churning out these babies about once a week until the next sale rolls around. I also whip up a dipping sauce to serve with the fingers. This sauce is good with chicken, fries, and even works well as a sandwich spread. I hope you'll try this recipe. I think you'll like it.

Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauce

1-1/2-2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts or tenders

Seasoning salt

Garlic salt

Pepper

6 drops hot pepper sauce

Flour for dredging

Oil for frying

This was 1-1/2 lbs. of boneless chicken tenders. They were on sale for $1.99/lb at Kroger. This package had 11 pieces and cost $3.00. A package of boneless breasts will yield several more pieces and would easily feed four people.

Sprinkle on your favorite seasonings. Pour on the hot sauce and toss the fingers to coat. The hot sauce will just add flavor, not heat.

I put the flour in a zippered bag to make coating easy and clean up fast.

Cook the chicken in batches. Drop one batch into the flour and shake the bag to coat completely.

Add just enough oil to coat the bottom of a skillet. Heat the oil on medium to med-high heat and fry the fingers, turning the fingers several times during the cooking process to get an even crust. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of chicken and heat level. These took about nine minutes.

While the fingers are cooking, I whipped up a batch of dipping sauce.

I started with 1/4 cup mayonnaise and a tablespoon of dijon mustard.

I added a sprinkle of garlic powder and paprika. Then, added a few drops of hot sauce. Again, the sauce is not spicy, just flavorful. Of course, this sauce can be doctored up to suit your tastes.